·Qatar’s former World Champion Price aiming to build upon fourth place in Portugal

·Andy Elliott recovered and raring to go in his Team Qatar-backed Dragon boat

SAINT PETERSBURG (Russia): Team Qatar arrives in the beautiful Russian town of Saint Petersburg this week determined to build upon the fourth and sixth positions earned at the opening round of the UIM F1 World Championship in Portugal back in May.

Lead driver Jay Price claimed the UIM F1 World Championship title in 2008 and knows that a podium finish on the demanding Neva River course is crucial to his title challenge this season, especially now that the series has been reduced from 16 counting rounds to just eight with the decision to run only one Grand Prix at each of the eight race meetings.

Price currently trails Team Abu Dhabi’s series leader Ahmed Al-Hameli by 11 points in his Mercury-engined DAC and lost his opportunity of leading the UIM F1 Pole Position Championship following a crash at the end of the time trials in Portimao.

“Our goal is simple and that is to win in Russia on Sunday,” said Khalid Bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, Head of Formula Racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which is run under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan Bin Jabor Al-Thani.

“There has not been an opportunity to test the boats between the races, but we hope to make some modifications and some minor revisions to give us a good chance in Russia. Andy suffered a major crash last year in Russia and we are delighted to have him back this season. He did everything we asked of him in Portugal with an excellent sixth position and we want him to finish inside the top 10 again here.”

Al-Kuwari was impressed with the host venue and the racecourse on the Neva River last year and is relishing the weekend’s action. “Saint Petersburg is a beautiful city and the set-up of the venue is awesome. This course is ours and we are sure that Jay will be on the podium. I suppose two races per weekend had a different taste. If you didn’t make it in the first race you still had a chance on the next day, but it was a lot of work. Now the attention is focused on just one race, but I am impressed with the new (FIA F1-style) qualifying system.”

Andy Elliott was hospitalised after an accident just eight laps into the race last year, but the Briton reckons that he is “90% back to normal” and looking forward to the weekend. “It is a difficult course, but I was not the only one of the experienced drivers to crash last time and it hasn’t affected my confidence really.

“I’ve got a new seat in the boat for this one and this will give me a more comfortable seating position. The boat (ex-Dave Burgess Dragon design built by former World Champion Jonathan Jones) may have lost a little speed on the last race, but I was still up there in the top 10 and that is the goal again on Sunday.”

The weekend’s timetable of events gets underway with technical scrutineering and team registration on Friday morning (July 9th). The first one-hour free practice session fires into life at 11.00hrs on Saturday morning (noon in Qatar - Saint Petersburg is one hour ahead of Doha) and this is followed by the new qualifying session and time trials between 16.00hrs and 17.00hrs. Time trials will precede a Russian championship ZAP-cat race.

Sunday’s action gets underway with a second free practice session from 12.30hrs and the Grand Prix of Russia hits the water at 18.00hrs (17.00hrs Doha time) and is scheduled to run for around 45 minutes.